March 30, 2008 Jan Hus Church 351 East 74th Street New York, New York 10021

Vox Novus joins with Remarkable Theater Brigade and Jan hus Church to present Composer's Voice, a monthly concert series championing the work of living composers.

Title Composer Performer Hope Christian McLeer Christian McLeer - piano Hunger Robert Voisey Robert Voisey - Tenor Amore all'italiana, Mvmt. I: Lasso, che mal accorto fui Mike Espar Jessica Miller-mezzo-soprano and Naren Rauch - guitar tainted tree Robert Voisey Robert Voisey - Tenor and recorded playback Orange Christian McLeer Christian McLeer - keyboard – Nord Lead 3

Performers Naren Rauch has done multiple tours of Europe, Asia, United States, as well as performed at Lincoln Center NY, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Strawberry Music Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, WFPK Waterfront Wednesday Concert Series (Louisville, KY). Naren has recorded with Laptop (Universal/Island records), The Navigators (Velour Records), Sony Music and appeared on GLR (UK), BBC Radio 1 (UK), NBC (USA). WFPK (USA), Woodsongs Radio Hour (USA). As an audio engineer, he has credits for Les Sans Culotte (Vibratone Records), Leftover Crack (Fat Wreck Chords). As a composer Naren has written music for numerous TV commercials (Saturn, Wendy's, Fanta, AT&T, Black & Decker, NASCAR, AT&T, Adidas) as well as for short films. He has had his pieces performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. Naren Rauch graduated from Manhattan School of Music in 1999 with a degree in Jazz Guitar Performance. Naren's website is www.narenrauch.com.

Composers Michael Gillette Espar is a Brooklyn-based composer and music producer. Recent film/TV work includes an orchestral score for The Mystery of the Polka King (Court TV), a swirling collage of noise-rock guitar and electronic percussion for the indie feature Altamont Now (Boston Underground Film Festival), and a bubblegum pop song for the award-winning short film Aquarium (Honorable Mention, Sundance Film Festival 2008). In addition to a wide variety of film projects, Espar is also working on a sequel to his time-traveling "tween" musical, The Swashbuckle Sisters: Search for the Stolen Sword with playwright Michelle Gillette, and a multimedia "rocksical" with former Swell Mob bandmate Keith Meatto. Espar holds an M.A. in Music Composition from New York University, with a concentration in scoring for film and multimedia, and a B.A. in Film Studies from Yale University. For all the latest, go to www.mgespar.com. Christian McLeer is currently in his 5th season as Artistic Director of Remarkable Theater Brigade, which he cofounded with Monica Harte and Dan Jeselsohn. They are producing their 6th major production, Glory Denied, an opera by Tom Cipullo, at Jan Hus Church in New York City June 5th & 7th. Christian is the artist-in-residence for the National Chorale at PS70, IS71, Brooklyn Tech HS and Fort Hamilton HS where he teaches chorus. He is also in his second year as the musical director for Jan Hus Church. He is the sound engineer for the TV show Nova Rock, currently being filmed and has just completed the original score for the short independent film in between written and produced by Gail Bell. Christian will be musical director for the Natchez Opera Festival’s educational outreach tour in April, which will perform his opera SHOT. Robert Voisey is a composer and impresario of new works primarily in New York City. He seeks innovative and creative approaches to promote the music of today's composers. In 2007, Voisey participated in the Tempest Project with his work by the same name and was performed at the Brooklyn College International Electro-acoustic festival. "Tempest" will be featured on an upcoming CD release on Pogus records.. His work, tongues, on the 60x60 2004-2005 CD release of the project and India Songs, a collaboration with Anne Cammon will appear on a poetry compilation released by LOGOchrysalis Productions. His work Constellations (TRANSreveLATION Mix) was performed at the TRANSreveLATION concert in New York City; and Constellations (EMM MIX) was performed at the Electronic Music Midwest Festival in Kansas City, his solo piano work, stark received its German debut in Munich, Germany at the A*DEvantgarde festival; Most recently his work has been performed at Fine and Dandy, a east village variety show. This includes "hunger" and "lust", in a collaboration with the choreographer Jeramy Zimmerman and "India Songs” a collaboration with poet Anne Cammon. India Songs and "a deeper shade of forte." "India Songs” was also performed at the Bowery Poetry Club. Christian McLeer is currently in his 5th season as Artistic Director of Remarkable Theater Brigade, which he cofounded with Monica Harte and Dan Jeselsohn. They are producing their 6th major production, Glory Denied, an opera by Tom Cipullo, at Jan Hus Church in New York City June 5th & 7th. Christian is the artist-in-residence for the National Chorale at PS70, IS71, Brooklyn Tech HS and Fort Hamilton HS where he teaches chorus. He is also in his second year as the musical director for Jan Hus Church. He is the sound engineer for the TV show Nova Rock, currently being filmed and has just completed the original score for the short independent film in between written and produced by Gail Bell. Christian will be musical director for the Natchez Opera Festival’s educational outreach tour in April, which will perform his opera SHOT. Robert Voisey is a composer and impresario of new works primarily in New York City. He seeks innovative and creative approaches to promote the music of today's composers. In 2007, Voisey participated in the Tempest Project with his work by the same name and will be featured on an upcoming CD release. His work, tongues, on the 60x60 2004-2005 CD release of the project and India Songs, a collaboration with Anne Cammon will appear on a poetry compilation released by LOGOchrysalis Productions. His work Constellations (TRANSreveLATION Mix) was performed at the TRANSreveLATION concert in New York City; and Constellations (EMM MIX) was performed at the Electronic Music Midwest Festival in Kansas City, his solo piano work, stark received its German debut in Munich, Germany at the A*DEvantgarde festival; Most recently his work has been performed at Fine and Dandy, a east village variety show. This includes "hunger" and "lust" in a collaboration with the choreographer Jeramy Zimmerman and India Songs, a collaboration with poet Anne Cammon. India Songs was also performed at the Bowery Poetry Club.

Hope was Christian McLeers’s first commission which he wrote at the age of 14 for the American Cancer Society. hunger it is sad. sad. yesterday, i was thinking about you; it made me feel sad, that we lost all those good times. all those good times. it is sad. remember when. that was then. sad. now when i see you, i remember why we failed so bad. it is sad. it is so sad. sad. Amore all'italiana, Mvmt. I: Lasso, che mal accorto fui a is a setting of three love sonnets by 14th-Century Italian poet Francesco Petrarca (a.k.a. Petrarch), written for my dear friends Naren Rauch and Jessica Miller Rauch, in honor of their marriage last year. I selected the three poems from a series of 366 that the poet wrote for Laura, the object of his affections, over the course of a particularly lovesick year. I re-ordered them as a narrative in three movements: the initial elation, the subsequent trials and tribulations, and the final realization of the lasting power and value of love. Musically, I've mixed traditional Western harmony with modal and jazz elements, a nod to the time in which the poems were written and the performers' own sensibilities. tainted tree is a “tainted” rendition of the Handel aria which is about the love for a tree. The “taint” series consisting of several compositions written by Robert Voisey concerns itself with taking a naïve or simple melodic concept and transforming with the rules and “accepted” traditions of compositional theory. Even Handel was subjected to these criticisms and guidelines by his contemporaries. Being an English composer he was coerced to write in Italian because only opera in Italian was considered the “true” form of that genre. All other works in other languages were considered inferior. This version is sung as a modern day aria with all the influences that a postmodern world can provide. Orange is one of a set of pieces created specifically for the Nord Lead 3 synthesizer each piece is named after a color.

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